TAKE TWO by Barbara Elsborg

* A touching, but not soppy, read with Barbara Elsborg's usual tugs on my heart; with a couple of guys brought together by fate - or maybe a higher power; with an organic mystery element that's seen through with devastating consequences. But remember, it's a BE tale, so it all works out 😃

I've never read a BE book that I've not enjoyed, and this is one of her most organic-feeling. It starts with a punch for both River and Newt - River's blow is devastating in how he may never regain control of his body, voice, mind and agency, and Newt's is devastating in how his life and future are taken away from him by betrayal by family, by people who should've loved and protected him. The two don't know of each other's existence until a good deed to a stranger results in Newt being offered a job in River's life.

The tale is perhaps a bit slower than some of BE's, but that makes it more realistic as we see River's physical and mental struggles. There's less of BE's trademark humour, commensurate with the seriousness of both punches. Newt's punch comes back to haunt him when trying to help River results in a (maybe deserved? Sue me, I'm a Scorpio) tragedy and cops (once again) put two and two together, sending him back to the nightmare of his teens, rendering him speechless, unable to defend himself.

There's also the part of the dying sibling that really moved me. Yes, Scorpio-me, despite not being given to forgiving or forgetting, thought these scenes were done beautifully, with kindness, compassion and forgiveness, but with a lot of sadness for lives wasted, mistakes made, lacking courage to do the right thing; Newt was a bigger person than me to do what he did. You'll be moved to tears, I guarantee it. And what the dying sibling does in his last days, does make differences to Newt's life, just not the ones either would have chosen...

As with all BE tales, things come good for good people, and bad people almost always get what they deserve - here, satisfyingly so.

ARC courtesy of the author for my reading pleasure.

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